TPJ Files Complaint Over Perry's "Bullying"

In a complaint filed with prosecutors today, Texans for Public Justice alleges that Governor Rick Perry potentially committed several criminal offenses related to his recent threat to use his discretionary power to withhold money from the Travis County District Attorney’s office unless DA Rosemary Lehmberg resigns.

Read the full TPJ press release.
Read the complaint filed with prosecutors.

Texas' Top Lobbyists & Top Contributors

Special interests spent up to $328 million lobbying in the 2013 legislative session. Lists of the top lobbyists, top clients and lobby spending by interest group are now available.

TPJ has also compiled a list of the top 150 sources of campaign money in the 2012 election cycle.

Lobby Watch: 'Little Tobacco' Fights Health-Care Fees

Smaller cigarette companies failed to stub out a bill in the legislature to make them pay the same health-cost fees that Big Tobacco pays. The bill's fate lies with Governor Perry, whose former campaign manager is a top lobbyist for Big-Tobacco.
Read the details in Lobby Watch.

Gov. Perry Vetos Dark Money Disclosure Bill

Governor Rick Perry has vetoed SB346, the legislation requiring non-profits who spend money on political campaigns to disclose their political donors. TPJ director Craig McDonald released the following statement. "Perry's veto of HB 346 lets his far right friends play politics under their own special set of rules. Their campaign contributions will remain secret. No one will have to take their hoods off."

Read the news coverage from the Texas Tribune.

Ethics Assault in the Legislature

Led by Senator Joan Huffman, the conferees considering SB 219, the Ethics Commission Sunset legislation, cut out major provisions of the reform bill that had been added in the House earlier in the week by huge margins.

“Behind closed doors the conferees mounted a strategic assault on transparency,” said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice. “The stage was set to make significant progress on ethics and open-government reform. The true nature of the politicians reared its head at the last minute. Politicians can’t be trusted to clean-up politics.”

Lobby Watch: Will Perry Veto Lobby Disclosure?

Texas lawmakers passed a measure requiring lobbyists to disclose payments that they receive from political campaigns. This disclosure bill will become law unless it is vetoed by a governor whose campaign has paid lobbyists and lobby firms more than $650,000 in recent years.

Lobby Watch examines Governor Perry's lobby ties and flags some potentially gaping loopholes in the proposed disclosure bill for campaign payments to lobbyists.

Lobby Watch: Tax-Break Recipients Give Combs $238,500

Corporate recipients of $1.2 billion in property-tax breaks contributed $238,500 to Comptroller Susan Combs, who vets the controversial tax-abatement program.

Lobby Watch reveals who's playing to not be paying for public education.

Lobby Watch: Eighty-Two Payday Lobbyists Out to Kill Reforms

Twenty-four predatory lenders are paying 82 lobbyists up to $4.4 million to kill a bill to impose consumer protections on payday and auto-title loans. A tenth of the industry's lobbyists are former Texas lawmakers. Georgia-based auto-title lender Rod Aycox is the biggest lobby spender in Texas, which let lenders repossess the vehicles of 35,000 Texans last year.

Details in the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Predatory-Loan Bill Lands in Mortgaged House

The Senate passed surprisingly tough predatory-loan reforms that now must run a savage gauntlet through the House. Since 2009 the industry has given $1.4 million to current House members. Meanwhile, Speaker Joe Straus pocketed ten cents of every political dollar that the industry has spent statewide.

Read the details in Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: 12 Republicans Flip From Lege to Lobby

A dozen recent members of the Texas Legislature already are reporting up to $2 million in lobby income this session. The 12 revolving-door lawmakers left office with $2.4 million in left-over campaign funds, which they can legally use to buy influence with state officials. Many new revolvers are hustling for the very interests that they regulated. Predatory lenders and education interests rank high on their client lists.

A new Lobby Watch reveals who sold out--for what.